<p>Spain will remove the remains of dictator Francisco Franco from a grandiose state mausoleum northwest of Madrid on October 24, the government announced on Monday.</p>.<p>The long-awaited date was announced after Spain's Supreme Court last month overruled a string of objections from his family, who had tried to halt the exhumation.</p>.<p>On Thursday, the remains will be relocated to Mingorrubio El Pardo, a state cemetery 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of the capital, and placed next to those of his wife,</p>.<p>"The exhumation and reburial (of his remains) will be done in an intimate manner with his family present," Justice Minister Dolores Delgado said in a statement.</p>.<p>Franco, who ruled with an iron fist following the end of the 1936-39 civil war, is buried in an imposing basilica carved into a mountain in the Valley of the Fallen, 50 kilometres (30 miles) outside Madrid.</p>.<p>Moving Franco's remains has been a priority for the Socialist government of Pedro Sanchez, which has said Spain should not "continue to glorify" the dictator, whose hillside mausoleum is topped by a 150-metre (500-feet) cross and has attracted both tourists and rightwing sympathisers.</p>.<p>The move has divided opinion in Spain, which is still conflicted over the dictatorship that ended with Franco's death in 1975.</p>
<p>Spain will remove the remains of dictator Francisco Franco from a grandiose state mausoleum northwest of Madrid on October 24, the government announced on Monday.</p>.<p>The long-awaited date was announced after Spain's Supreme Court last month overruled a string of objections from his family, who had tried to halt the exhumation.</p>.<p>On Thursday, the remains will be relocated to Mingorrubio El Pardo, a state cemetery 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of the capital, and placed next to those of his wife,</p>.<p>"The exhumation and reburial (of his remains) will be done in an intimate manner with his family present," Justice Minister Dolores Delgado said in a statement.</p>.<p>Franco, who ruled with an iron fist following the end of the 1936-39 civil war, is buried in an imposing basilica carved into a mountain in the Valley of the Fallen, 50 kilometres (30 miles) outside Madrid.</p>.<p>Moving Franco's remains has been a priority for the Socialist government of Pedro Sanchez, which has said Spain should not "continue to glorify" the dictator, whose hillside mausoleum is topped by a 150-metre (500-feet) cross and has attracted both tourists and rightwing sympathisers.</p>.<p>The move has divided opinion in Spain, which is still conflicted over the dictatorship that ended with Franco's death in 1975.</p>